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Fig. 5 Main features of the communicative approach
The learning theory underlying this Approach is not very much developed, though some main elements emerge from its practice. Learning improves when these forceful ideas are applied to classroom activities (see Johnson 1982):
Relationship of activities to real communication.
Activities use language for meaningful tasks.
Language used is meaningful to the learner.
Language is used communicatively, rather than practicing language skills.
) Activities and techniques of the Communicative Approaches
Communicative approaches make use of a variety of materials which are selected and viewed as a way of improving classroom interaction and a communicative use of the language. Some criteria in which these materials are based -and some activities and techniques derived from them- are the following (see Jonhson 1982 and Larsen-Freeman 1986):
-The information transfer principle which refers to the ability to understand and produce language making transferences from one medium of the language to another. Activities based on the information transfer can be: write some purposeful notes from a listening comprehension, write sentences from diagrams, give a personal opinion about some pictures...
-The information gap principle takes account of the different levels of information between people when communicating, which allows to do a good number of exercises: students have different pieces of information and have to exchange them through questions and answers; students can choose different answers, which means negotiation when talking...
-The correction for content principle means more emphasis on the communicative content expressed than on grammatical accuracy. Errors and mistakes, therefore, receive a very different treatment than in the preceding methods.
■The use of authentic materials exposes the students to real uncontrived language, so that the learner is faced with language as it is.
-Join scrambled sentences (or a conversation, a picture story...) into their original order, a good way of dealing with cohesion and coherence and other aspects of discourse.
-Language games are communicative as they have three features of communication: information gap, choice, and feedback.
-Role-plays allow students to be aware of the different social contexts and roles, attitudes, mood...
-Problem-solving activities.
-Pair and group work are a procedure very much used.
Some textbooks claiming to be communicative combine functions, situations and topics. Many others have their units organised into a functional basis -as the example in the table below:
Talking about yourself
Identifying people
Describing my town
Giving directions
) Some assessment of the Communicative Approach
It is difficult to assess the Communicative Approach as it is not a totally defined method and has been subject to several interpretations -as we have seen above-, specially at the levels of design and classroom procedures. It has had a strong impact on language teaching and the importance of its contribution is shown in this summary (see McDonough and Shaw 1993):
Increasing concern with the meaning potential of language.
The relationship between language form and function is of a rather complex character.
The concept of communication goes beyond the sentence to texts and conversations.
Appropriacy of language use is considered alongside accuracy, which has implications for error correction, materials and activities.
It provides realistic and motivating language practice.
The concept communicative is applied to all four language skills.
It can use learner’s knowledge and experience with their mother tongue.
It has introduced a better level of language reflection and awareness in its later times.
But, on the other hand, it is evident that there are still some unresolved problems with the Communicative Approach:
Too much emphasis has been given -particularly in its early stages- to speaking and listening, to the detriment of reading and writing.
There has been a lack of reflection on language aspects.
It is not clear the criteria for selecting and grading the chosen functions and grammatical exponents to be taught.
Critics have pointed out that it is not appropriate to foreign language situations, so advocate more emphasis to language awareness.
Again, not all the teachers whose mother tongue is not English are confident enough to work with this approach.
In fact, some of the proposals imply a new selection of language through functions, as the structuralists did with structures.
Its advocacy of a meaningful use of the language is not always clear, as the activities or tasks to be undertaken are not always really meaningful.
New moves: the procedural approaches
In the last decade there have been important innovations in theory, research and classroom experience, which are introducing sound changes in FLT and represent a challenge to the dominant model. We can say that at the moment two major paradigms coexist: the propositional (structural and functional approaches) and the procedural (task-based and process approaches). We have considered the propositional models above as ways of teaching and learning through formal and systematic statements (expressed as structures, rules, functions...), though they differ in the main element they focus on and in how they sequence the content (Breen 1987).
The most important changes and innovations in education refer to (see Breen 1987:157-60):
views of language (considered above when dealing with the communicative approach);
views of teaching methodology, which recognise the necessary balance between planning objectives and content with close attention to the development of classroom implementation;
views of learners’ contributions, which consider the process of classroom interaction and context the basis for learning, not the content of a lesson;
views of planning, which assume that the teaching-learning process, activities and roles are the significant substance of lessons for those who participate in them, instead of the content of lessons.
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